Alarmingly, half the cricket season has passed and the chances of being able to pluck out this so-called summer as one to savour remain low. Sometimes just the four figures of a year are evocative for cricket lovers: mention 1947, 1976, 1981 or 2005 and the images flood back.

But what of 2012 so far? How long we will remember the wettest start to the season since records began? There have been the sodden, one-sided series against the West Indies, won by an efficient England side whether the ball was red or white. Tony Greig gave a lecture; Kevin Pietersen retired from one-day cricket. Stay awake at the back.

Around the counties it feels like a battle for survival against the distractions: the Euros, though England's performances there were seldom more uplifting than a damp draw at Grace Road and those Olympics just around the corner. But mostly it has been a battle against the weather. County chief executives look in anguish at the skies like grumpy old farmers.

On Friday I was at Taunton for a T20 match, which was won by Gloucestershire by nine wickets. As ever the rain clouds hovered; there were scudding showers which threatened proceedings and I asked those charged with running the club in such testing times: "What would you prefer – a Somerset defeat but a full match, which meant not having to reimburse all the spectators; or one point after an abandoned game?" They leant heavily towards the former not, I suspect, out of pure altruism, which demands we should all play up and play the game. Somehow the books have to be balanced.

The match was a sell-out, almost 8,000 fans crammed into the County Ground in their anoraks. Despite the impediments there is still a hunger for the game around the country. At Headingley more than 10,000 watched the Roses match on Friday night. Despite this foul summer T20 still works in some parts of the country: at Hove, Chelmsford and Taunton the sold out signs occasionally appear and the treasurers break in to a rare smile; there is also a spring in the step at Nottingham, Worcester and sometimes at Lord's and The Oval, though the economies of scale at those two Test grounds demands five-figure crowds to make T20 matches viable. But there are tales of woe from Northampton, Derby, Leicester and Cardiff. Despite their best efforts far too many seats remain empty and we are reminded of a simple old truth: the punters like watching winners. A team can sign Shane Warne and Chris Gayle but if it keeps losing the crowds drift away.

Along with those woeful tales come calls for a franchise system to invigorate England's T20 – almost as if by merely enunciating the word "franchise" millions of dollars will be mysteriously and magically generated. Likewise there is much jet-set talk of "City T20s", even though the current success stories are often in the less urban centres of Chelmsford, Hove, Worcester and Taunton. I'm no Robert Peston, but surely more than wishful thinking is required to provide a viable economic model.

At Taunton I witnessed a poor contest, not because Gloucestershire won but because they won so easily. So while Hamish Marshall and Benny Howell were slicing the Somerset attack to all parts, I kept an eye on proceedings at Lord's, where England and Australia were engaged in one of those antiquated 50-over games, currently derided as outmoded and so very 20th century. The match was played out in front of a full house and it was a superb contest, ebbing and flowing throughout.

Like many I have railed against the series against Australia for being an opportunistic commercial exercise. But in a "summer" so devoid of enchantment, here at least was a tight game, full of quality cricketers striving to the limit. We may well forget the result of the series within a month, but on Friday it seemed significant enough because the opponents were Australia and we all know that we can compete against Australia at synchronised swimming or tiddlywinks and the outcome seems important.

When the result matters and when the schedule is not saturated the 50-over game can provide a great spectacle. The format is fine, more demanding than its 40-over cousin that the counties cherish so much. Bowlers have to seek wickets; batsmen nowadays require the skill to negate two new balls. We should play it at county level alongside T20 and the Championship. I mentioned this as I left Taunton and was looked upon like a dinosaur.